European Authorities Publicly Back Pending Boeing 737 MAX Fixes -- Market Talk
September 25 2020 - 09:30PM
Dow Jones News
By Andy Pasztor
Europe's top air-safety regulator on Friday gave his most
explicit support yet for pending software and hardware fixes to
Boeing Co.'s troubled 737 MAX jets, paving the way for resumption
of commercial flights as early as November.
Patrick Ky, head of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency,
told French aerospace reporters in Paris that his agency expects to
follow the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's lead in ending
MAX groundings likely in November, according to a report by
Reuters.
The comments reiterated previous EASA signals offering a vote of
confidence in the pending changes necessary to eventually end the
grounding of the MAX fleet. But by mentioning a specific timetable
and indicating European regulators at this juncture are satisfied
with the proposed changes, Mr. Ky went further than he has before
in supporting the international process under way. The changes also
include finalizing new pilot-training requirements expected to
entail some mandatory ground-simulator sessions.
Over the months, Mr. Ky and his team have been involved in a
series of intense, behind-the-scenes disagreements and debates with
FAA counterparts over details of the fixes and revised training
activities. Earlier this year, U.S. government officials were
concerned that European and Canadian regulators, who conducted
their own separate test flights, could lag behind the U.S. by weeks
or longer in authorizing resumption of MAX operations. Two of the
jets suffered fatal crashes in less than five months that killed a
total of 346 people, prompting global grounding of the fleet in
March 2019.
The FAA and Boeing have said they are working closely together,
as well as cooperating with relevant international regulatory
agencies, to safely put the planes back in the air. So far U.S.
government and industry officials, though, have refrained from
publicly spelling out a projected timeline as specific as the one
Mr. Ky unveiled Friday.
But American Airlines recently told its pilots enhanced MAX
training was expected to start in November. Mr. Ky's comments
follow completion of simulator testing by a group of international
pilots to vet MAX fixes. Details of amended training procedures are
expected to be released and put out for two weeks of public comment
by FAA training experts in October. FAA chief Steve Dickson is
expected to fly the revamped MAX next week, as part of industry and
government efforts to alleviate safety worries by travelers.
If everything goes well, widespread flights of MAX jets in the
U.S. and other areas could resume around the beginning of 2021,
though Chinese approvals could take longer.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 25, 2020 21:15 ET (01:15 GMT)
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